Local ag leader sees benefits in growing hemp

A local Farm Bureau leader sees potential benefits for farmers in a bill that would legalize growing "industrial hemp," a plant related to marijuana.

"If it's something farmers in the area can grow and make money, and it's legal, I don't see any problem with it," said Tod Kimmelshue, a member of the boards of directors of both the state and Butte County Farm Bureau organizations.

Keene said he and most other Republican Assembly members fear that making it legal to grow industrial hemp would create problems for law enforcement and perhaps encourage drug use.

The bill, authored by Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, passed the Assembly by a vote of 44-32. Only one Republican supported the bill, Assemblyman Chuck Devore of Irvine, who co-authored the measure.

According to Leno, in 1937 the federal government mistakenly put hemp in the same category as marijuana because the plants look similar and both contain THC, the intoxicating chemical in marijuana. The difference is that hemp contains only a tiny amount of THC, not enough to have mind-altering effects on people.

Keene said he didn't see any need to legalize growing hemp. He said he was told that if there was cross-pollination between marijuana and hemp, the hemp's THC content could increase.

Keene said the legalization of growing hemp is advocated as "a first step" by those who wish to legalize growing marijuana.

Leno's bill now moves to the state Senate.

According to a legislative analysis of AB1147, industrial hemp can be used to make paper, clothing, rope, food products, biocomposite products that can replace fiberglass and plastics, biofuel to produce ethanol, and body-care products.

Statistics on hemp grown in Canada show the acreage has risen from 3,200 in 2001 to an estimated 10,000-15,000 in 2005. It is grown through dry-land farming and in irrigated environments. It has little need for pesticide as it shades out competing weeds.

Six states — Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, North Dakota and Virginia — have made it legal to grow hemp, but so far they only allow limited cultivation for research purposes, the analysis stated.

Kimmelshue said its conceivable hemp could become a viable crop in California.

"Farmers are always looking for new crops to grow," he said. "It all depends on the economics."

As long as hemp was grown for its value as a food, fiber or other products and it couldn't be used as a drug, Kimmelshue said he saw no reason to oppose legalizing its cultivation.

It "could be good for the local economy," he said.

Staff writer Larry Mitchell can be reached at 896-7759 or lmitchell@chicoer.com.

BACKGROUND: Hemp, a relative of marijuana, is illegal to grow in California and most other states.

WHAT'S NEW: The state Assembly, on a party line vote, passed a bill that would allow farmers to raise "industrial hemp," which contains just tiny amounts of the intoxicating chemical in marijuana.

WHAT'S NEXT: The bill, co-authored by a Northern California Democrat and a Southern California Republican, now moves to the Senate.